Hana Elster, a 22-year-old Boston University senior studying business law, built an online vintage marketplace called VYA over winter break using Claude and coded a pilot website in five days—now featuring about 38 fully onboarded vintage shops nationwide and
By winter break, Hana Elster was already thinking about founders the way some people think about weather: always on the horizon, and impossible to ignore.
Elster. a 22-year-old senior at Boston University studying business law. had been surrounded by a “big founder community in Boston and New York.” Watching other people her age—or a little older—build their own companies pushed her to act on a longtime instinct: the desire to be her own boss and build something for herself.
Then, over winter break, she used Claude to build an app—one that now has hundreds of users and brings vintage shops together in a single place.
Elster’s path started far from code. She began thrifting around the age of 14. when she would go to the mall and see a $30 shirt—then walk into her nearest Goodwill and find 10 shirts for $30. It wasn’t just cheaper. It felt like a way to wear something nobody else had. and it pulled her toward the idea of secondhand shopping as both value and identity. Today, she says 80% of her closet is secondhand.
A conversation sharpened the business idea. Last year, she and a friend talked about their favorite hometown stores. The friend mentioned an “amazing vintage store in Chicago” that Elster, originally from Washington, DC, wouldn’t have found without that conversation.
That stuck. Elster realized there was space for “a centralized vintage platform.”
So she reached out to many shops to understand what they were struggling with and where they wanted to grow. Most sellers told her the same thing: they wanted more eyes on their products.
Brick-and-mortar stores said they had websites, but their sales still depended heavily on foot traffic. Shop owners described putting work into their websites, only to get one sale a month from that platform.
Fully online sellers told a different story. They felt forced to post three times a day on Instagram and TikTok to get their names out. Many also treated vintage as a side hustle while holding full-time jobs, leaving little time for marketing.
Elster’s response was to build faster than the market’s constraints.
She said it took five days to build a pilot website. She began with “vibe coding,” a method she learned by connecting with a friend who had built a fashion app years earlier. In January, she started with Cursor, then began coding with Claude, and the project “accelerated really fast.”
Elster started on January 9 and built a mock website for VYA by January 13, during winter break. Friends in tech helped review the code and confirm it flowed correctly.
Five days later, she had a website—turning lines of code into buttons, functions, and a storefront she could actually show.
The marketplace’s reach is now measured in stores and shoppers, not just ambition. Her website brings together about 38 vintage shops from around the country. Elster has spent under $2. 000 on app development so far. covering “all technical and operational costs.” She self-funded using her savings and has also received some grants from Boston University.
More than three months in, she said 38 stores are fully onboarded and still growing. There are roughly 900 approved users, including 50% daily active users.
To monetize, Elster charges a 7% commission per item sold, with an average price of about $350. She is also testing a model called “source for requests. ” where customers pay a flat fee for finding a specific product—such as a rare 90s Chanel bag. Usually one of the 38 stores can fulfill the order. If it cannot, the fee is refunded.
The tension in Elster’s story isn’t only about building a business. It’s about what changed in the equation for starting one.
She said she had always wanted to start her own business, but this was the first time she was hit with inspiration and could execute it. She also said she doesn’t know if she would have done it if she’d realized she’d need to hire engineers and other staff, and therefore raise money.
That’s where AI moved the goalposts. “AI has definitely dropped the barrier to entry,” she said, explaining that the biggest barrier used to be engineering. Now, she argues, the challenge is getting people to hear about a brand and convert them into buyers.
Her hiring plan reflects that shift. She said her first hire is going to be a CMO—chief marketing officer—because growth now depends on attention and sales, not just software.
Elster is also thinking about how to raise money to add to her headcount. For the moment, the focus is growth and getting more people to help her out so the company can grow “exponentially faster.”
After graduation, she’s scheduled to work in consulting. She has a return offer, and she said the role doesn’t start until September. She plans to accept it, building VYA alongside the job. If she can grow the business enough. add more people. and automate parts of the work. she would like to keep it running on the side.
There’s a personal shift, too—something harder to measure than revenue. Elster said being a young founder has changed her. The other founders she’s seen are “super bold, confident, and courageous,” and she says she’s developed that side of herself as well.
The story of VYA, for now, is about speed, access, and the market’s unanswered demand. The shops want more eyes. The shoppers want better discovery than foot traffic and overworked side hustles can deliver. And Elster—coding through winter break and planning her next hire—has chosen to bet that a more centralized vintage platform can win attention. one sale at a time.
Hana Elster VYA Boston University Claude online vintage marketplace AI coding vibe coding startup funding CMO hire e-commerce secondhand shopping